Imbroglio
by VeilsofSleep
Summary: '"So, Captain, why are you and this strange woman covered in cocaine, eggs and what smells like Bourbon?" Here stood Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD, waiting for an answer.' This was not the fancy smooth jazz partner Steve expected. More like a heavy metal head with two left feet. Series of oneshots centered around Steve/OC. Appearances from all Avengers.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Two days in and we're like two fins on a fish**

"So, Captain, why are you and this strange woman covered in cocaine, eggs and what smells like Bourbon?"

Steven Rogers could not begin to explain this situation. Here stood Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD, waiting for an answer. If the man were not so stoic, no doubt he would have been tapping his foot, but Fury did not need such gestures. His glare alone was enough. For her part, the cause of all the ruckus stood proqe1udly in all her glory, rather unashamed in the compromising circumstance she found herself in. Currently, she was focusing on the thing white powder that covered everything with all the intensity with which Hulk glared at a rubber ducky.

"Meet Ms. Anna Proenzo," Rogers replied as squarely as he could. There was no point in hiding anything from SHIELD. If they wanted information they would get it, it was best to give it to them and save everyone some time, "genius, part time escort and drug addicted malcontent."

"I am aware of who she is," Fury nodded, acknowledging her for a second, "Why is she here? In your apartment?"

"I'm trying to help her get clean-"

"Does she want your help?"

"No." The definitive answer came for the woman herself, who cocked one eyebrow as she surveyed the man in the eye patch. Clearly a military man, he took her current state (in which she was wearing booty shorts and a bikini top, had a hair cut that looked more proper at a heavy metal concert and a tattoo of a key snaking around her torso exposed) in his stride.

"I saved your life," Rogers replied quietly in that way which suggested that he would rather not argue with her at all, but felt compelled to do so. Rather odd for the guy who had once been called 'polite as fuck'. A drunken Stark had laughed the words a few weekends ago but they rang true. Captain America only argued when he truly believed in what he was saying.

"Well we are going to have to relocate you now that you've drawn so much attention to yourself," Fury looked around at the carnage that the apartment (and much of the building) now faced. Not to mention the large and unconscious man who was lying not far away. Fury was willing to bet money that this man was somehow attacged to Miss. Proenzo; his best guess would be a disgruntled boyfriend. An abusive one if the steadily bleeding cut on Anna's shoulder was anything to go by.

"Alright, this is a private matter, and I'm going to go." Anna headed for the door but quickly found herself impeded by a defiant Captain Rogers who quickly blocked her escape, "You heard him."

Steve had once told Peggy that he was waiting for the write partner to dance with. For a long while he thought that she had been that partner. Now, decades into the future, he was still looking for a partner, for someone, anyone really, to share his something special with. This strange, ill tempered and slightly crazy woman hardly fit the bill of a true lady, but managed to keep his interest. She was a project, something for him to fix, to heal. And he would be content to leave the matter at that, but for some reason, she meant more to Steve than that, even if he didn't know it yet.

"You new apartment will be in Queens," Fury came to a decision, "Ms. Proenzo, I suggest you go with him."

"And you are?"

"Director Fury of SHIELD," Nick replied icily, "we've seen your work. You'll be best under the Cap's care."

Now why did that sound familiar? Ah yes. She had seen a super encrypted file with that label while she had been _poking around_ in the NSA's hard drives. Apparently she had not gotten away with hacking their servers as well as she thought she had. Still, Anna had to admit that her curiosity was piqued. Still though, it was not as intense as her need to either sniff or wash the white powder that covered her body in a thin film off, sniff being the greater of the two compulsions.

It had been nearly a forty eight hours since she had quit cold turkey and she would be damned if she broke her streak for this military cover up bullshit. Her withdrawal wasn't pure agony yet, but every second she spent covered in her own personal poison, Anna could feel her control and her sanity slipping.

"Well, I'll pass on the whole military enforced imprisonment," swiping up a leather jacket, not her own, and her bag off the floor, Anna bolted around Mr. Clean-Nose and aimed for the door again, this time her bath impeded by the eye-patch.

"I insist." Now Nick had never met this woman, in fact all he had known her as was by her alias, 'LocksKey', but he didn't doubt that left to her own devices she would cause trouble. They were still determining how much information she had viewed or stolen in her last foray into some of the governments more secure databases.

"I don't have a choice in the matter do I?"

"You don't." both men replied at the same time.

"In that case, if I don't get a shower and a stiff drink in my hand in two minutes I will lose my shit and need a fucking sanatorium."

She was not joking.

"Good luck, Rogers." Fury pulled open the door and walked out.

"I'll be needing it, Sir."

As soon as the door shut, Anna dropped her bag on the floor and bolted for the bathroom. Running over broken glass and furniture, Anna bit hard enough into her lip to draw blood and didn't bother to answer Steve's calls. The pain in her feet didn't seem real as glass cut open her heel, the stinging of her shoulder didn't seem real. Reaching her destination, she jumped into the shower, turning it on full and hot. The scalding hot water didn't bother her, not as much as the snow that covered her body and itched like a million termites crawling under her skin.

The world was getting hazy and fuzzy.

"It's alright, your okay now," Steve was there rubbing her hand, not caring that his freshly washed and pressed shirt was getting wet, "just breathe, Anna, just breathe."

Forcing a breath in, Anna's vision cleared and she realized she had been holding her breath.

As surreptitiously as he could, Rogers turned the water down a little bit so it wasn't quite boiling. After a few minutes, once most of the powder was gone, Anna calmed down a fair bit and looked far more coherent and far less manic than she had moments earlier, though she certainly looked fatigued.

"I'm still leaving the first chance I get." It was a lie. Both of them knew it. Despite all her complaints and her rants, Anna could hardly imagine going back to the life she had lived, going back to that boy friend of hers who lay in the hallway drooling on the hardwood or that Madame who sold flesh like others sold meat. In a mere forty eight hours she had been shown a new life and craved it like the addict she was. She wouldn't leave. She couldn't.

* * *

Alrighty folks, this either going to be a oneshot or a series of oneshots all centered around Captain America and my OC.

Hopefully the rating is appropriate given the themes and language of the story. If it is inappropriate let me know and I will jack up the rating to M.

Reviews/criticisms/advice are all greatly appreciated!

VeilsofSleep


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Of Men and Chickadees...and Princes?

"How can you type that fast without getting a cramp in your fingers?"

Steve watched as his roommate's hands moved at incalculable speeds and correspondingly numbers and letters appeared on the 4 LCD screens in front of her at alarmingly fast rates. Of course, his words caused her to neither slow in her typing nor glance away from the screen, making it all the more remarkable.

"How can you be shot in the head and walk away without requiring a face transplant?" the answer was fired back without hesitation.

Now, from what Steve understood, what she was doing currently was 'hacking' a 'remote server' while 'spoofing her IP address'. Apart from the words 'a' and 'while', he understood none of her explanation, aside from the fact that it was probably frowned upon and perhaps illegal. Apart from understanding the mechanics of the blender and his George Forman Grill, Steve had yet to fully understand the various bits and bops of technology around him. The most interesting were the laptops, desk tops and gadgets that Anna worked on.

"Maybe you should take a break." His suggestion was ignored, which he expected. The clicking of fingers on keys had become a constant presence in the apartment.

They were in a brand new apartment in Queens now and had been for the better part of three weeks, during which the initial withdrawal symptoms of Anna's cocaine habit had worn off. No longer was she lethargic, irritable and monstrously ill tempered due to the incredibly severe carvings. Now they had to deal with the longer terms symptoms. These symptoms included insomnia, which Anna was most certainly a victim of seeing as how it was three am and Steven was almost asleep in his cereal.

The apartment itself was nice enough. It was a well furnished two bed, two bath deal with a rather nice kitchen (which Steve still needed to figure out how to use) and living room where a large television sat. Thus far, Steve had only made use of the large bookshelf that sat next to the TV and was full of classical books, which had not changed since he read them over seventy years ago. In fact, he found himself enjoying the words nostalgically, not at all upset by the way Macbeth ended or how irritating he found Wuthering Heights to be.

"I'm starving, how about you?" Anna suddenly slapped her laptop shut.

"Or we could maybe take a nap for a few hours..." Steve suggested pushing his bowl away.

"No, I say we got out and get some food," Anna was tugging on a leather jacket (his) and a pair of boots. Though her eagerness was odd, Steve obliged her and pulled on a spare hoodie and his shoes while she tapped her foot impatiently at the door. After taking the elevator down from the third floor, they quickly escaped into the streets, with Anna walking oddly fast.

In days prior she had refused to leave the apartment and now, in the middle of the night she needed a walk.

That seemed strange. And suspicious.

"Anna, what are you up t-" his words were drowned out by the familiar sound of rock music coming from something, a something that was getting closer. It was a song he did not recognize, but sounded like the type of music that a certain billionaire-playboy-philanthropist would listen to.

"Well hello there my fine furry friends." The devil himself appeared in all his gold, red and silver glory, landing hard on the concrete pavement in front of Anna who shot him a glare that a cat would shoot his owner after being caught with eating the goldfish. For his part, Tony seemed in good spirits, "Sorry Chickadee, but you left behind a few virtual bread crumbs."

"What's going here?" Steve took charge of the situation, choosing to be a liaison between the owner of Stark Industries and the computer whiz.

"Your girl here just broke into my mainframe," Tony smirked at the woman in question with a smug grin, "But I set a nice little bear trap for her."

"Cheap shot, fuck-ass." Anna's answer was a rather unsatisfactory one at that.

"Hey, you're the thief not me." Tony shrugged nonchalantly, "Anywho, I now have but three options; either I hand you over to the proper authorities, or SHIELD, or make use of your talents myself."

"None of the above."

"I'm sorry, this is not your game show, it's mine Chickadee." After rubbing his chin mockingly for a second, Tony snapped his fingers, reaching a decision, "Welcome to the employ of Stark Industries, Ms. Proenzo."

"You have got to be kidding me." Steve resisted face palming. What this man possibly needed another employee for, he did not know. Stark had brilliant men and women coming out of his company's ying yang, he hardly needed _another _one. Then again, one never could tell what Stark's true motivations were. One minute he could be an ass and the next a genuine and sincere human being.

"Hardly Cap," Stark replied with yet another smug grin. It seemed he was going for ass today, "And as compensation, I will let you, dear Anna, clear up your business with that unfortunately droll Saudi prince and the large oil conglomerate he is affiliated with before entering in my service. They owe you some money yes?"

In truth, Tony had a beef with this particular oil conglomerate as well seeing as how they had recently attempted to sabotage his clean energy project. It had hardly deterred Stark Industries, but still, Tony felt that a certain amount of retribution was due simply because it had upset Pepper.

Now he had her attention. Once again, Steve did not fully understand what was going on, but he had a feeling that he was not going to like it. Then again, he should have guessed there was much more to Anna's story then he knew. Someone as intelligent as her could hardly have the life she had by accident. With a questioning glance, she turned to Steve, as though silently asking his opinion. Slowly he nodded.

"Alright, the jets ready and waiting, let's go." It had been a while since Tony had visited Dubai anyway.

It wasn't until they were seated on Stark's fancy jet with Pepper and Tony bickering in the background that Steve realized that Anna had _asked_ his opinion and _trusted_ it enough to board a plane to the middle east without asking any further questions. The woman had thus far refused to trust his opinion on corn flakes and had ignored his presence for the better part of the last month, making his situation seem almost hopeless. It was oddly honoring for Steve to feel that he had somehow earned a shred of her trust.

"If this goes south I will destroy your credit scores so badly that not even that taco stand in the Bronx will give you a job." The threat was directed at everyone aboard the plane in a dangerous monotone.

It was most definitely only a shred.

* * *

Another addition to the story of Anna and the perils she puts Captain America in.

A few reviews would be most helpful, so if you could please leave some sort of feedback for me it would be awesome!

Veil out.


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